Oaxacan Lamb in Spicy Tomatillo Sauce

In Chalcatongo, Jiménez purchases pit-roasted lamb, then warms up the meat in a simple tomatillo sauce rich with the earthy zing of costeño rojo chiles. On this side of the border, you'll have to cook your meat first, but our adaptation (we slow-roast it) couldn't be easier.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300°F with rack in middle.

Put avocado leaves in bottom of a heavy medium pot with a tight-fitting lid. Sprinkle lamb shanks all over with 2 teaspoons salt and arrange in pot (they don't have to be in 1 layer). Roast, covered, until meat is very tender, about 3 hours.

Meanwhile, slit chiles lengthwise, then stem, seed, and devein. Tear chiles into roughly 1-inch pieces (you should have about 1 1/2 cups). Heat a comal or large heavy skillet (not nonstick) over medium heat until hot, then toast chiles, stirring constantly, until more pliable and slightly changed in color, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. (Chiles will crisp as they cool.)

Cover tomatillos with water in a medium saucepan and simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well, then purée with chiles, garlic, cilantro, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a blender (in batches if necessary) until chiles are ground to small flecks.

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Reviews

Surprisingly delicious - I followed previous reviewers substitutes (bay leaves & fennel seeds) since Mexican ingredients are hard to come by in my part of the world. I charred the tomatillos, and added extra garlic and carmelized onions for a little extra flavor. The shanks were a bit of work to shred due to all of the tendons etc. After tasting it, I had to add some salt (missing from the recipe). I also ended up adding a bit of hot sauce, like a previous reviewer, to give it extra kick.
I'm not a big fan of lamb, but I found that the tomatillo sauce removes the 'gaminess' of the meat. I used most of the meat as a tamale filling.

This was very good. I did not boil the tomatillos in water but just halved them and added them to a saucepan on low heat. They soon gave up their juices, this avoided later sauce reductions. I added caramelized onions (one onion) to the mix in the blender. This gave the sauce more depth of flavor. Substituted dried morita chiles and bay leaves (for the advocado leaves). Also scraped out the marrow from the bones and added to the sauce. Finally i adjusted the heat with some bottled habanero sauce. Think that the spicy heat needs to be tweaked so as to balance the unctuous and tart nature of the sauce.

Easy and very good.
I was not able to
find avocado leaves
in time,
so I used bay leaves
plus a tsp of
crushed fennel seeds
instead. It worked
very well. I used
ancho pepper instead
of the costeno rojo
chiles. Delicious! Next time, I'll try it with the avocado leaves.